Tuesday, June 22, 2010

I told Nathan he looked to happy about his sunburn in this picture and he needed to look more miserable...

... this is what I got. Silly boy.

Ouchies!

We BOTH got really, really burned after playing in the pool for an hour or so with NO sunblock. We have been miserable together ever since. Nathan got really sick and I can barely lift my arms. I cry every time I try to do my hair. I think we definitely learned our lesson.

As you know, Nathan and I have been super busy making pottery, so much so that we fell a little bit behind on our cleaning...

Lucky for us, we have AWESOME friends and family that came and helped us out. Naturally, we fed them pizza and ice cream for their trouble. It was a long drive for most of them and they all worked really hard. We appreciate it so much, it was a big help.

Sometimes I feel like I have turned into a giant pottery dust monster. I leave the shop almost everyday with dust in my hair and eyebrows- making me look like an old lady- and my hands, oh my gosh, so dried up and icky.

Luckily, we are able to find some time to go some place clean! Like dinner a movie! Yay for date night!

In true Nathan fashion, the first picture we took together he was making a goofy face. He claims it was just a picture to make sure he was in the shot, but I decided to post it because it turned out kinda funny.

First of all, my sister-in-law, Amy has already blogged about this- because she is a much better blogger than I am! haha So if you read her blog you have already read about this.

A week or so ago (I must admit I don't know what day- they all sort of blend together these days) As You Wish was offering a free summer class in their Mesa store, because the news was coming in to film a little promo. Nathan thought it would be fun to invite his nephews to spend the night and come to class, since this is what they would be painting:

Carson got a little nervous about spending the night away from Mom and being in front of the news cameras, so his awesome big sister Madison came in his place and painted to car for him. She's such a sweetie!

Here they are- Garrett and Madison- the latest and greatest local tv celebrities- practicing their smiles for the camera.

Getting ready to get started with their pottery in front of them- like a blank canvas ready to be turned into a police car masterpiece!

I tried to get a decent picture of the news guy without disrupting the broadcast, but he kept moving around a lot! I swear he was facing the camera when I was started taking this picture...

And here is Madison and Garrett again! Paintin' away! Garrett decided to make his police car all red... it must be an undercover cop!

Here's a shot of part of the class with one of As You Wish's most awesome associates, Jaycee. There were a lot of kids that showed up for their 15 minutes of fame.

They lined all the kids up to show off their "works in progress" to film one of those teasers they put on to get you to keep watching. To see that video, check out Amy's blog. I was able to find the rest of the tv spot online though!

Out of all the pictures I took, this is the best one I got of the weather dude. Here, he is checking out some of the really awesome summer class samples.

Madison- with her, well, with Carson's police car. She did such an awesome job!

and Garrett, showing off art work.

It was a pretty neat experience. Hopefully Madison and Garrett fun and will look back and remember that time they got to be on tv!

If you're interested to see what other classes As You Wish has to offer check out the calendar on their website! They aren't all just for kids either, they have fun adult classes too.

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

So, for those of you haven't heard yet- Nathan and Tarin Lunt are officially self-employed! Yup, that's right- Nathan has left As You Wish after 5 long years and I leave my census job Thursday to do what? Make pottery!

This is something that Nathan has always enjoyed doing. When this opportunity presented itself, we just couldn't pass it up. It is something that we had discussed doing in the future- but neither of us expected that it would happen so soon! We were thinkin maybe after Nathan had finished up school and we had a kid or two, maybe we would start our own pottery business- never did we imagine that we would have this chance after being married only a little over a year!

In case you are wondering how this came about, the former owner of the company approached Nathan to see if he wanted to take it over. It was a business that she had run with husband for several years, and he had recently passed away; She just didn't want to do it anymore without him. So Nathan and I sat down and ran the number, thought and prayed about it a TON and finally decided that we would take the plunge! We took a few weeks to learn the ropes and officially took the business over on June 1st. It is keeping us very busy so far!

Here are so pictures of our shop:

This is the view of the shop from the back door (where we come in- the store front is a mess right now- we're trying to get in straightened up!) The shelves on the walls are full of ceramic molds, and all the tables you see are the molds that we have on production line right now.

This is a view from the back of the warehouse, it gives a better perspective of the pouring tables. This is the first step in the process. We set up all the molds that we need (or at least as many as we can fit) and then we use a pump to pour clay into the molds. After the caly has set up a bit, we go back and drain the extra clay out of the mold- this is what make the pottery hollow, instead of just a solid mass of clay.

Once, the pottery is drained, we let it sit in the molds for a while and harden/dry. The we unmold the pieces and set them on the shelf to completely dry up.

These are some piece that have been unmolded. They are already dry in these pictures, just waiting to be cleaned.After the piece are dry, we clean them- which means that we take off the seams left by the mold, and we smooth out and bumps or dips. We basically make it look all pretty and smooth before we put it in the kiln and fire it.

These are some turtles after they have been cleaned, just waiting to go into the nice toasty kiln.

And these are some cupcake boxes- also cleaned and waiting to be fired.

After they are fired, they are unloaded from kiln and placed in our stock room until they get packed up and shipped out in a order.

Part of our animal shelf in the stock room.

A few bud vases in the stock room.

And some tile boxes.

Another cool thing that we do, is custom carved pieces! I was very excited to learn this part.

This is a custom carved snowman that I did.

And this is a custom carved Dallas Cowboys football! Not too bad- but I am hoping that my carving skills get a little better with time. We already have had a handful of custom carved orders, so I am getting a lot of practice.

We have a really big order that we are trying to fill right now, and since I still have to work until Thursday, we had to bring some work home.

Here is a bookshelf full of pottery- sitting in my living room- waiting to be cleaned. I have been trying to do as much as I can before work.

This is my little cleaning table that I have set up a home. Not gonna lie- I am really looking forward to my census job being over so that this mess can just stay at the shop!

Our summer is going to be very busy, but we are hoping to find time to get the front office all cleaned up and presentable, then we might have a little open house thing, so our friends and family can come see the shop in person. Until then, I am sure there will pictures I can post on here.

So, there it folks! That's one of the main reasons I haven't posted anything in so long. Nathan and I have both been so busy taking this business over- it has sucked up most of our spare time. We are looking forward to some of the perks of being business owners though- like making our own schedules! We are actually going to be able to see each other now! No more working opposite shifts! Actually, we are pretty much going to be together almost every single moment of every day. Hopefully we don't get too sick of each other! :p

I had gone home from the pottery shop one too many times with rough, dry hands. While Nathan and I were out buying a new printer for the business, I convinced him to stop by Bath and Body Works with me. I went for some kind of scrub that would get the clay off my hands at the end of the night and some lotion....

Nathan: We are just here to get what we need, and then we are leaving.

Tarin: I have to look around a little, I haven't been to this store in forever, I don't know exactly what they have...

*Tarin spots a variety of scrubs on the tester counter (exactly what we need!), and asks the sales lady where they are located in the store.

Sales Lady #1: They are right over here, let me show you. Oh, by the way, these ARE part of the signature collection, which are buy 3 get 3 free right now.

*Tarin looks up at Nathan with a big smile!

Nathan: That's how they sucked me in at Christmas time!! (For those of you who don't know or remember, Nathan bought me a ton of bubble bath for Christmas)

Tarin: Well...I am just going to look and see what else they have...

I got 3 of these; they are, after all, one of the things we came for...

Two different lotions...

And one body wash! (Which I have fallen in love with, and might have to go back to buy the whole line!)

Nathan: Ok, let's go now.

Tarin: Oh! We need soap for that bathroom too!

So I picked up one foaming anti-bacterial that I thought smelled nice and headed to the check out counter.

Sales Lady #2 (ringing up the soap): Oh, were you not going to take advantage of the 4 for $15?

Tarin: What?

Sales Lady #2: All the soaps are 4 for $15. They are usually $5 a piece. I think the sale makes them about $3.50

*Tarin thinks to herself, That sounds reasonable... And walks over and picks out 3 more pumps of soap.

A quick shopping trip for scrub and lotion turned into 10 items and $55. Boy! What a sucker am I!?! ...At least I will a nice smelling sucker. HA!